Photo courtesy of Dave PangaroBrian Johnstone (center) as part of the wedding party of close friend Dave Pangaro (left), Cicero fire chief; another good friend, Bill Melfi, is on the right.The Post-Standard

Jan. 11, 2009

Sean Kirst, columnist

Brian Johnstone is a driver for Tomra New York Recycling, a company that recycles returnable containers. At noon Thursday, Johnstone parked his tractor-trailer behind the Can Man returnable center, a regular stop on South Avenue in Syracuse. He dropped a ramp from the truck to the back door. Johnstone greeted a woman who works for Can Man, and they got busy loading boxes of cans and bottles onto the truck.

Johnstone had just walked into the back room when the 52-year-old woman began screaming, "Brian! Brian! Help me, please!"

"I didn't know what happened," Johnstone said Sunday. In his spare time he is a second assistant chief with the Cicero Fire Department. He has helped pull injured motorists from crumpled vehicles. In a crisis, he's learned, there's no time to hesitate.

Family photoBrian Johnstone, second assistant chief of the Cicero Fire DepartmentHe grabbed a two-by-four that was leaning against a wall, then stepped outside. The woman was down on the ground, struggling, while a man with his back to Johnstone kneeled above her. The man turned. He wore the hood from his sweatshirt tight around his head. His face was covered with a mask with a spider web design.

The man lifted a handgun - a big handgun - and pointed it at Johnstone's head.

"He's walking toward me, and he's pushing me back inside, and he's backing me up," said Johnstone, 30, who tripped and fell. The man stood above him, still pointing the gun, and demanded Johnstone's wallet and cash. Johnstone guessed that another employee in the front of the store had called 911. He did his best to stall until police could arrive.

"My wallet's in my truck," Johnstone told the man, who replied that they would go outside and get it.

As Johnstone tried to get up, the gun pointed at his head, the man used his free hand to pat down Johnstone's pockets. "You've got your wallet!" the man said. He reached in and pulled it out.

"Then he freaking whacks me with the gun," Johnstone said.

It was more than a whack. The man struck him so hard in the head with the gun, later identified by police as "a large-frame Ruger revolver," that it fractured Johnstone's skull. Johnstone was blinded by the blood from a gash that would take 17 stitches to close. He did not see what became of his assailant, but investigators say the man ran to a nearby house on Daisy Street.

Police followed the footprints in the snow. They arrested Clarence Wilson, 22, and charged him with robbery, attempted robbery and two counts of criminal use of a firearm.

Johnstone was hospitalized overnight by doctors who worried about clotting on his brain. By Friday afternoon, his head still throbbing, he was home with his wife and young son. His close friend, Cicero Fire Chief David Pangaro, has been checking in regularly. They grew up together. They both work at Tomra. As volunteers in Cicero, they often respond to the same fires and accidents.

"It's still unbelieveable that this happened," Pangaro said.

As for Johnstone, he said he's made twice-weekly stops at the Can Man store for several years, without incident. "You see some homeless guys, but they're pretty decent people," he said. The woman who was the original target of attack has called more than once to see how he is feeling. While Johnstone hardly labels his actions as heroic, Pangaro - his old friend - is thankful for good luck.

"We're lucky Brian's alive," he said. "And I think that woman is very lucky that it was Brian who was there."